Cult British techno outfit Underworld spend most of their time locked away behind banks of computers or getting dancefloors heaving on the club scene. But their encounter with Gabriel Yared, a composer who generally works with full symphony orchestras, took the group out of their familiar environment for a change. The collaboration was the brainchild of Anthony Mingella, a director for whom Yared had already written a number of famous soundtracks including the music for The English Patient and Return to Cold Mountain.

Mingella brought Yared and Underworld together to work on his latest film, Breaking and Entering, starring the British actor Jude Law and French actress Juliette Binoche. Yared recalls that "Creative sparks just started flying at the initial meeting between Anthony, Underworld and myself. We took one look at each another and immediately realised that we could all work really well together. The project involved an intense collaboration with constant dialogue that lasted a full eighteen months. By the end of that time the relationship had evolved into a genuine friendship."

The mutual sharing of influences and musical sensibilities created a very real sense of complicity, too, and a very intimate form of music where keyboards and a handful of string instruments fuse perfectly with dance beats and electronic loops. Meanwhile Underworld's singer, Karl Hyde, adds a quirky edge to proceedings with his vocals, experimenting with a style of hypnotic incantation that will sound extremely familiar to Underworld fans. The result is a mix of ethereal melodies, melancholy-tinged ambiences and a soundtrack that works an as imaginary film in its own right.

"Getting involved in a collaboration like this snaps you out of your isolation and, at the same time, plays an important role in revitalising film music as a genre," claims Yared, who does not rule out the idea of performing live on stage with Underworld at some point. Given that the soundtrack to Breaking and Entering is a groundbreaking album in its own right - not to mention one of the best releases of the year so far – a Franco-British stage collaboration may soon be in great demand!